Jacob Ogles
Kamala Harris used an appearance Sunday before a largely Black church audience in battleground North Carolina to call out Donald Trump for spreading misinformation about the government’s hurricane response. President Joe Biden visited Florida for the second time this month to survey storm damage.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, did not speak Trump’s name, but he is most prominent among those promoting false claims about the Biden administration’s response to Hurricanes Milton and Helene. Florida was in the path of both storms, with Helene also hitting North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, while Milton headed for the open Atlantic.
The Vice President spoke at the Koinonia Christian Center about the “heroes” all around who are helping residents without regard to political affiliation.
“Yet, church, there are some who are not acting in the spirit of community, and I am speaking of these who have been literally not telling the truth, lying about people who are working hard to help the folks in need, spreading disinformation when the truth and facts are required,” Harris said.
“The problem with this, beyond the obvious, is it’s making it harder, then, to get people life-saving information if they’re led to believe they cannot trust,” she said. “And that’s the pain of it all, which is the idea that those who are in need have somehow been convinced that the forces are working against them in a way that they would not seek aid.”
Harris said they are trying “to gain some advantage for themselves, to play politics with other people’s heart break, and it is unconscionable,” she said. “Now is not a time to incite fear. It is not right to make people feel alone.”
“That is not what leaders, as we know, do in crisis,” she said.
Trump made a series of false claims after Helene struck in late September, including saying that Washington was intentionally withholding aid from Republicans in need across the Southeast. The former President falsely claimed the Federal Emergency Management Agency had run out of money to help them because it was spent on programs to help immigrants who are in the United States illegally.
He pressed that argument on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” saying the White House response was “absolutely terrible” and repeating the claim about FEMA’s dollars. “It came out from there and everybody knew it,” Trump said in an interview that was taped Thursday and broadcast Sunday.
Before Harris spoke in church, Biden was surveying hurricane damage on a helicopter flight between Tampa and St. Pete Beach on the Gulf Coast. From the air, he saw the torn-up roof of Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team. On the ground, the President saw waterlogged household furnishings piled up outside flooded homes. Some houses had collapsed.
The President said he was thankful that Milton was not as bad as officials had anticipated, but that it still was a “cataclysmic” event for many people, including those who lost irreplaceable personal items. He also praised the first responders, some of whom had come from Canada.
“It’s in moments like this we come together to take care of each other, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans,” Biden said after he was briefed by federal, state and local officials, and met some residents and responders. “We are one United States, one United States.”
Harris opened her second day in North Carolina by speaking at the Christian center in Greenville, part of her campaign’s “Souls to the Polls” effort to help turn out Black churchgoers before the Nov. 5 election.
The Vice President later spoke to roughly 7,000 supporters at a Sunday afternoon rally at East Carolina University’s arena, suggesting that Trump’s team has stopped him from releasing medical records or debating her again because they might be “afraid that people will see that he is too weak and unstable.”
The North Carolina appearances mark the start of a week that will find Harris working to shore up support among Black voters, a key constituency for the Democratic Party. She is counting on Black turnout in competitive states such as North Carolina to help her defeat Trump, who has focused on energizing men of all races and has tried to make inroads with Black men in particular.
On Tuesday, she will appear in Detroit for a live conversation with Charlamagne tha God, a prominent Black media personality.
Black registered voters have overwhelmingly favorable views of Harris and negative views of Trump despite his attempts to appeal to nonwhite voters, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. But the poll also shows that many Black voters aren’t sure whether Harris would improve the country overall or better their own lives.
In Florida, which Biden had visited the Big Bend region on Oct. 3 after Helene struck, the president announced $612 million for six Department of Energy projects in hurricane-affected areas to bolster the region’s electric grid. The money includes $47 million for Gainesville Regional Utilities and $47 million for Switched Source to partner with Florida Power and Light.
With a little more than three weeks before the election, the hurricanes have added another dimension to the closely contested presidential race.
Trump has said the Biden administration’s storm response was lacking, particularly in western North Carolina after Helene. Biden and Harris have hammered Trump for promoting falsehoods about the federal response.
Biden said Trump was “not singularly” to blame for the spread of misinformation but that he has the “biggest mouth.”
“They blame me for everything. It’s OK,” Trump told Fox.
Biden has pressed for Congress to act quickly to make sure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which ends Nov. 30 in the Atlantic. He said Friday that Milton alone had caused an estimated $50 billion in damages.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whose department oversees FEMA, said the hurricane season is far from over and there are other natural disasters for which the agency must ready.
“We don’t know what’s coming tomorrow, whether it’s another hurricane, a tornado, a fire, an earthquake. We have to be ready. And it is not good government to be dependent on a day-to-day existence as opposed to appropriate planning,” Mayorkas said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said there was plenty of time and that lawmakers would address the funding issue when Congress comes back into session after the Nov. 5 election.
“We’ll provide the additional resources,” Johnson told CBS.
Milton made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening. At least 10 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of residents remain without power. Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for widespread evacuations.
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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
29 comments
Michael K
October 14, 2024 at 2:01 pm
It’s appalling to see a man who wants to be President spread lies and misinformation to vulnerable people in need – and to stoke division in a time of crisis.
In any other situation, a man like would fired, disbarred or dishonorably discharged. If people are willing to overlook what he says or when he lies, they are admitting his word means nothing.
Billy Rotberg
October 14, 2024 at 3:33 pm
Tell us, why did Harris only call desantis when running for higher office? Spare us the morally superior bs you are spewing.
JD
October 14, 2024 at 3:50 pm
Oh please.
You’re attempting to compare someone calling to offer support (even if there was political mileage) to someone spewing hate and vitrol inducing lies?
Spare us YOUR morally superior bs you are spewing.
There is no high ground from your platform, just bottom dwelling.
Billy Rotberg
October 14, 2024 at 4:02 pm
Bottom dwelling is what you excel at JD. There are literally dozens of examples of you lying just in the last 2 months, right here. When I have time I shall post them to remind others of you people’s deceptions.
JD
October 14, 2024 at 4:08 pm
You don’t have anything you can prove. Either you, or some other troll was using my moniker.
Any at most I may have been misinformed on some facts I used in support, but which I can admit too. And you can’t.
Which makes me better than you. I don’t lie and I can admit to my mistakes. So read your reposts when you have time carefully. Because you don’t have sh!t, again, because I don’t lie.
And you’re the bottom feeder, made your money preying on Small Business people with the equivelant of pay check cashing with MCA. Scummy.
Rick and JD's gay man sex emporium
October 14, 2024 at 7:20 pm
Slow day at the emporium, libturd?
Billy Rotberg
October 14, 2024 at 7:14 pm
Those lies don’t work JD. All you do is use weasel words. My MCAs are nothing in comparison to the BS your DEM masters have swindled the masses our of. The fact is, anyone can change their screen name here so basically you are using that fact to weasel out of the comments you made.
JD
October 15, 2024 at 8:11 am
1.) I vote issues and an NPA. The BananaRepublicans no longer align to my issues.
2.) Don’t conflate your personal scum-baggery with an entire political party. You PREYED on SMALL BUSINESS owners, the backbone of America’s economy. You should be ashamed.
3.) Bring on my comments. There’s nothing in them that even compares to your immoral actions to your fellow citizen’s economic health, with the exception of the ones that were mimicked.
Billy Rotberg
October 15, 2024 at 9:03 am
Either you or some other troll was using my moniker, JD. See how this works? Come back when you learn how the comment section here functions.
JD
October 15, 2024 at 9:22 am
Guess who’s back, guess who’s back, guess who’s back…
JD
October 15, 2024 at 9:29 am
No one is going to make up specific like they owned and sold an MCA business to explain their supposed independent wealth.
See how that works? Come back when you learn how logic functions.
You just wanted to come in and “own the libs” and got your ass handed to you.
Billy Rotberg
October 15, 2024 at 11:35 am
No need to. You embarrass yourself with every comment. Continue making a fool out of yourself JD. It’s entertaining!
Billy Rotberg
October 14, 2024 at 7:15 pm
*Out
Rick and JD's gay man sex emporium
October 14, 2024 at 7:21 pm
Libturds are stupid. They are counting on you having shit for brains.
Billy Rotberg
October 14, 2024 at 7:25 pm
They took the candy from the creepy dude in the van and got in. Now everyone pays more for everything with nothing in return.
JD
October 15, 2024 at 8:14 am
There’s a comment a bit back about you loving the Democratics becaue it juiced the MCA industry. Seems like you sucked on the ole Democratic Dick to make your fortune.
Hypocrit.
JD
October 15, 2024 at 8:15 am
*Democrat Dick
JD
October 15, 2024 at 8:13 am
You mean like your shit for brains? Stop projecting about your sexual fantasies.
Michael K
October 14, 2024 at 8:48 pm
Ever notice how the paid Trump trolls have plenty of screen names, and nothing but insults, name-calling, whatboutisms and off topic change-the subject questions? And vulgarity, of late.
60 minutes is fake
October 15, 2024 at 4:38 am
I wish I was paid Michael K. You libs are simply intolerant. You want to spew your anti-Repub garbage but want no counters. Remember half of the country does not share your views.
Billy Rotberg
October 15, 2024 at 8:49 am
Never forget: Anyone who sees through the democrat propaganda and calls their minions out over it MUST be a paid trump troll! The desperation is clear, they offer nothing and are complete train wrecks so naturally they must attack opposition.
Billy Rotberg
October 15, 2024 at 8:45 am
The only thing noticeable is the continual lies and propaganda from the left. Who are these “Trump trolls”? Who’s getting paid? You just engaged in name calling and Whataboutism Michael K. The only standards you have are double. Thanks for proving it.
Billy Rotberg
October 15, 2024 at 8:56 am
Hey Michael K, check out the vulgarity of JD. Funny how you people ignore it when your own ilk does it. Objectivity does not exist amongst you leftists.
JD
October 15, 2024 at 9:25 am
Oh please. You’re a sham and a hypocrit.
Preying on small business owners with MCA, who are the backbone of the American economy.
Then you take that money and live in a gated community removed from the people you victimized while playing the victim? Scumbaggery at it’s finest.
Billy Rotberg
October 15, 2024 at 11:39 am
*Hypocrite. Obviously you flunked English. Typical low level knuckle dragging leftist simpleton.
JD
October 15, 2024 at 12:25 pm
My academic endeavors may have been hindered by poor eyesight, but my skills in writing and English are beyond dispute.
Unlike you and MCA, I didn’t resort to exploiting others to make a fortune. That’s the real scumbaggery.
Billy Rotberg is a Hypocrite*
October 15, 2024 at 12:26 pm
Shamless scumbaggery that is.
60 minutes is fake
October 15, 2024 at 4:09 am
No wonder Joe Biden picked Kammy as his VP. The two of them have plagiarized themselves in politics. Of course Kammy has no original thoughts. Her book she coauthored years ago has 27 instances of plagiarism. If she wins this thing Maya Rudolph will have tons of material she can use for Saturday Night, if that liberal network will allow it.
Cindy
October 15, 2024 at 8:45 am
Accountability and integrity with issues.
Comments are closed.